26 Feb 2024, Anadolu News

The deadly self-immolation of a US airman outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington over the weekend was “very tragic,” the Pentagon said Monday. “It certainly is a tragic event. We do extend our condolences to the airman’s family,” Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters.

Aaron Bushnell, 25, an active-duty member of the US Air Force, set himself ablaze in front of Israel’s diplomatic mission Sunday afternoon in protest of its ongoing war in the besieged Gaza Strip, and US support for the offensive. He was taken to a hospital but died.

“I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal,” Bushnell said in a video recording that chronicled the fatal protest.

Bushnell can repeatedly be heard shouting “Free Palestine!” as flames engulf him before he collapses to the ground.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is “following the situation,” Ryder said. Additional details are expected to be provided by the Air Force 24 hours after Bushnell’s family is notified.

An investigation remains underway.

Bushnell is the second known person in the US to have lit themselves on fire in protest of the war on Gaza. Last December, a person set themself on fire outside the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta, Georgia in protest.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border incursion by Hamas, killing more than 29,690 people and causing mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas-led attack.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

ICJ Concludes Hearings

Public hearings at International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israel’s occupation of Palestine concluded on Monday after a week of oral statements by dozens of countries, including Türkiye, and three international organizations.

“The public hearings on the request for an advisory opinion in respect of the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, concluded today,” the top UN court said in a statement.

Along with Palestine, 49 other states, including Türkiye, the US, the UK, France, and the Netherlands, and three international organizations – the Arab League, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and African Union – presented oral statements in the Hague.

“The Court will now begin its deliberation. The Court’s advisory opinion will be delivered at a public sitting, the date of which will be announced in due course,” the top UN court said.

The hearings started last Monday in The Hague following the UN General Assembly’s request for an advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.

South Africa brought a genocide case against Israel to the world court in late December and asked for emergency measures to end the bloodshed in Gaza, where nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7.

The court in January ordered Israel to take “all measures within its power” to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza but fell short of ordering a cease-fire.

It also ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective” measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip.

A cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 killed an estimated 1,200 people, but the ensuing Israeli offensive into Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Despite an international outcry, Israel now plans a ground invasion of Rafah, which holds 1.4 million refugees.

For the first time since its establishment in 1948, Israel is being tried before the ICJ, the highest judicial body in the UN, on charges of committing the crime of “genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.

Over the past 143 days, Israel has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave